Historic Stroudsburg church becoming a museum

Tuesday

Aug 7, 2012 at 12:01 AM

Workers spent a recent afternoon filling an area around the base of the historic former Little Bethel African Methodist Episcopal Church on Third Street in Stroudsburg as part of continuing efforts to restore the 144-year-old building and make it a museum.

ANDREW SCOTT

Workers spent a recent afternoon filling an area around the base of the historic former Little Bethel African Methodist Episcopal Church on Third Street in Stroudsburg as part of continuing efforts to restore the 144-year-old building and make it a museum.

They had dug the moat-like area to waterproof the building's stone-footer foundation.

"It should be waterproof for another 150 years now," said Snydersville-based contractor Richard Pierce, watching as one worker in an excavator filled the dirt around the foundation while another worker salvaged usable bricks from what had been dug out. Those bricks could probably be used to make a walkway.

Since being hired by the Stroudsburg Little Bethel Historical Association in November, Pierce and his crew have also stabilized and insulated the crawl space against moisture and mold and next plan to replace water-damaged bricks in the rest of the structure's exterior with new salmon-colored bricks consistent with the original historic look.

"The last step in taking care of the exterior will be addressing the rot problems in the roof and repairing the overhang," Pierce said. "Then, the historical association will have to decide what exactly they want done with the interior."

Historical association members watched from the sidewalk as the work progressed.

"We now have a better idea of what we're doing since we've hired Richard," said Madeline Washington, wife of association President Walter Washington. "I think, once everything is done on the exterior, the first thing to take care of on the interior will be the floor, and then we can see what else we need."

The association in 2002 began restoration efforts that later stalled "because we didn't have a clue what we were doing" prior to Pierce getting involved, Washington said.

Built in 1868, Little Bethel is believed to be the first African-American-built church in the Poconos, said association historian Jeffrey Wright.

Monroe County native Shari Chambers, who said she founded and then left the historical association over a disagreement, has disputed this, saying her full-blooded Native American ancestors were the ones who led other Native American and black families in starting the church.

Chambers, who is trying to get a memorial erected to honor her ancestors and other founding church members, says the building once restored should be a church again. She opposes the association's plans to make the building a historical museum, though the association said the public would still be welcome to conduct religious ceremonies and other events there.

During its operation, Little Bethel consisted of a predominantly African-American congregation, Wright said, at a time when most of Monroe County's black families lived on Third Street and usually weren't welcome in white churches. Little Bethel survived the 1955 flood, but membership in later years declined until the church finally closed in the 1980s.

"I once talked to a man in his 90s who was baptized at Little Bethel and recently talked to a woman in her 80s who has the last Bible from the church," Walter Washington said, looking at the old building which still has the original glass in most of its windows.

Madeline Washington said former Little Bethel members are welcome to donate any historical items they've kept, along with any old pictures of the church and Third Street neighborhood in the days prior to Little Bethel closing. The items could be donated to the historical association for display in the museum.

"This restoration is a good thing for this community," she said. "The church will no longer be an eyesore and will now continue on as a part of the area's history."

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